Is anyone using an electric dehumidifier in their greenhouse at this time of year?

[ChrisR]

Is anyone using an electric dehumidifier in their greenhouse at this time of year?

[ianstrutt]

Something I’ve pondered doing but never gone through with. Average humidity is 90% currently.

Interested to hear others thoughts.

[Darren S]

Interesting thought, but my greenhouse stays fully open apart from maybe twenty cold nights most winters, and I don't fancy paying to dehumidify the entire atmosphere..

[Aiko]

Interesting thought, but my greenhouse stays fully open apart from maybe twenty cold nights most winters, and I don't fancy paying to dehumidify the entire atmosphere..

Same here. To be honest, dehumidifying a greenhouse sounds like a very odd idea.
Fresh cool air is all you need to keep your plants happy. I have been doing that for 25 years in my greenhouse for all sorts of succulents.

[Paul D]

I've thought about it too. But it seems that dehumidifiers only take out a small proportion of the moisture present.
Leaving windows and doors open here (N.E. Scotland) between September and March would result in rather more ventilation than was intended! Winter humidity is probably my biggest killer so I leave fans running to try and improve circulation.

[Ali Baba]

The humidity in my greenhouse currently is 94% compared with 96% outside presumably due to the higher temperature inside the greenhouse, so opening the vents would seem to be counterproductive. In any case leaving the vents shut will help raise the daytime temperature which will allow the humidity to fall. I run 3 fans in the greenhouse and despite the high humidity I don’t lose plants in the winter perhaps surprisingly.
Installing a dehumidifier would be very ineffective I suspect unless you can seal the greenhouse up enough as most greenhouses are fairly leaky so will be sucking in moisture from outside. Homes are much more effectively sealed so dehumidifying a room or conservatory would be fairly easy , we do it in our utility room to dry washing!

[ianstrutt]

A related question- what sort of fans are people using for air circulation? Size, number, rpm etc?

[DesertPlant]

Any suggestions for suitable fans for a 8x12 ft greenhouse?

[Ali Baba]

I’ve got a 3kw Simply Control fan heater with the fan on continuously all year round and a cylindrical fan hanging in the roof, plus in the winter I’ve an old Parwin heater as an extra fan at ground level which just works as a fan. In a 10x8 greenhouse

[edds]

I have two dehumidifiers in my conservatory. I have a compressor one that runs in the warmer periods and a dessicant one that I run when it's colder (often instead of any other heating as it warms the air as part of drying it.) The dessicant one is most efficient when cold as it doesn't spend increasing amounts of time on the defrost cycle.

I have a lot of plants that need to be kept warm in there alongside the Aeonium and there aren't enough windows to give good enough ventilation. I also run a 16" fan all year round.

I found it has cut down the amount of plants with mildew and also allowed me to save any that do get it.